Shivraj asks Cong to shun party politics for GST bill

BHOPAL: With the GST (Goods and Services Tax) bill remains clouded in uncertainty with ongoing Parliament stalemate, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has come forward pleading leaders to shun party politics and make way for the bill. “The amendments sought by Congress and coalition members have been included, now Congress should support the bill in Parliament in the interest of public,” Chouhan told reporters in assembly on Tuesday.

Though, BJP has said that Congress concerns on tax reforms have been narrowed down from seven to three while demand for 100 per cent compensation to states for revenue loss for all five years will be taken care of, Chouhan said, “Major issues were almost solved and discussed with the Congress”.

Interestingly, it was Chouhan who had raised concerns last year over GST saying the bill had marked a major departure from the division of tax powers between the Centre and the states envisaged in the Constitution. In a letter to finance minister, Chouhan had underlined, “This could cause substantial revenue losses to the state and impinge on their fiscal autonomy”. However, changing instance over the impending stalemate, Chouhan is in favour of early implementation of GST.

Denying a consensus, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Kantilal Bhuria said, “BJP has double standards over several issues, one of them is GST. When UPA government supported this bill, BJP was not even ready for discussions”. Bhuria said BJP has to discuss and reach a consensus as Congress has no issues on this. He further said, “The matter of resignation of Shivraj Singh, Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj is also pending with the BJP”.

Bhuria also blamed BJP for stalemate in the Parliament. He said BJP was trying to malign the image of Congress stalwarts and founder members. “If BJP want to run the Parliament smoothly, it should respect Congress leaders”. He, however, denied National Herald issue behind the logjam in the Parliament. Bhuria, recently took over the oath of office in Lok Sabha after winning Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha by-poll.